The Vermont House approved the latest version of the state’s annual transportation budget on Friday, shelving for now a debate about whether legislators should exempt electric aircraft maker Beta Technologies from local parking restrictions in South Burlington.
On a voice vote, House lawmakers sent H.736 — a segment of the state’s overall budget allocating millions of dollars to transportation projects, and one of the must-pass bills of each legislative session — back to the Senate. Representatives declined to pass a handful of initiatives senators added to the bill last week, including two measures dealing with Burlington International Airport.
Among those additions was a one-sentence provision introduced by Sen. Thomas Chittenden, D-Chittenden, meant to aid Beta Technologies in an ongoing zoning dispute with South Burlington officials.
The provision would have denied cities and towns the right to regulate parking next to municipally owned airports, resolving the company’s issue with the city. Beta has wavered on supporting the amendment while a possible resolution is underway at the local level.
In a Friday morning email obtained by VTDigger, the company pushed to keep its options open. Beta Chief Operating Officer Blain Newton and South Burlington City Manager Jessie Baker wrote to House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, requesting that the body delay a vote on the transportation bill for a third day in a row. The delay would push the vote to Tuesday, after the South Burlington City Council has the opportunity to resolve the company’s dispute locally.
But, top legislators reasoned, the Friday vote would still give city councilors time to act, since additional amendments to the transportation bill prevent the legislation from reaching a final vote until the Senate weighs in next week.
South Burlington officials last month told Beta that — because of a city zoning regulation — the company had to add an extra building to its 40-acre campus before it could construct a massive manufacturing facility.
The two sides forged a compromise earlier this week, with Beta agreeing to cut more than 250 parking spaces from its master plan if South Burlington let it proceed with the manufacturing facility.
But Beta executives said they weren’t quite satisfied with that solution. Even if the company couldn’t get its parking spaces back right away, they wanted them eventually — requiring an exemption from the city zoning rule.
Both state and city policymakers displayed an appetite to accommodate Beta, which has threatened to move its manufacturing operations — accompanied by roughly 500 jobs — across Lake Champlain to the Plattsburgh, New York, airport.
In addition to Chittenden’s amendment to the state transportation budget, the South Burlington City Council (of which Chittenden is also a member) took up a measure that ultimately would allow Beta to get its spaces back and not have to add an extra building. Councilors are slated to vote on that measure on Monday.
With the local effort to appease Beta underway, some South Burlington officials expected Chittenden to relinquish his proposal at the state level. But Chittenden went back and forth on whether the amendment was necessary.
“This week, depending on the day, I was for or against keeping (the amendment) based on the information I was getting from Beta and from the governor’s office,” Chittenden said.
Meanwhile, some of Chittenden’s South Burlington colleagues grew frustrated. The amendment, in their eyes, eroded South Burlington’s already-diluted control over the Burlington-owned airport. Some also feared it could authorize airport leaders to expand the facility’s parking farther into South Burlington territory.
“Senator Chittenden’s waffling and lack of preparation make him unfit to be a Senator. He is an embarrassment,” City Councilor Meaghan Emery wrote in an email to reporters Friday morning.
In a response to those comments, Chittenden told VTDigger: “Councilor Emery has an approach to politics that I don’t think helps the dialogue or advances our common interest for civility. … I regret that she interprets my actions in this way.”
Also opposing the amendment was Baker, the South Burlington city manager, who submitted unsolicited testimony to state lawmakers Thursday evening, asking them to drop the amendment.
“There is no benefit Beta would receive from the State language that would not otherwise be afforded to them in the local language being considered by the City Council on Monday night,” Baker wrote in a letter to the House Committee on Transportation.
But the disagreement between state and local policymakers came to an abrupt end shortly after Baker’s letter, when Baker and a top Beta executive huddled on the phone to resolve the issue.
After speaking with Baker, Beta’s Newton agreed that the local zoning changes would satisfy the company’s goals, and that the state language could have unintended consequences, Baker said.
Having settled their differences, the duo sent an email to Krowinski on Friday morning with a request: Don’t bring the transportation bill to a vote until the City Council passes the new zoning regulations on Monday.
“Together we realized that several process details have been lost in communication,” Baker and Newton wrote. “We see a local path forward to ensure Beta’s complete success here in South Burlington.”
The House didn’t heed the message, and passed the transportation bill without Chittenden’s airport parking amendment. But Baker told VTDigger she felt her and Newton’s request was honored, because the Senate could still add the amendment if the new city regulations do not pass on Monday.
When asked about the House vote, Beta said in a statement: “We now have a commitment from the City of South Burlington to adopt language on Monday night that would allow us to enter into discussions with the City Council to remove the need for an unnecessary building and allow us to build the parking we need.”
“We have several more steps in the process to go, but we appreciate the efforts made by the Governor, legislators and local officials to help us solve this challenge,” spokesperson Jake Goldman said.
Despite the saga of obstacles Beta’s original parking plan has faced, Baker said the city and the company are still on good terms.
“We’ve always had a positive relationship, and quite frankly I think it’s stronger than it’s ever been,” the city manager said.
In voting out the bill, the House also axed another amendment offered by Chittenden: a $150,000 study evaluating whether the city of Burlington should continue to own and operate Burlington International Airport.
House lawmakers dialed back that item in their latest version, downgrading the study to a working group that would examine already-published research on the question.
On Friday, the first-term senator declined to say whether he would try to resurrect his proposal.
“I’m a new guy around here,” he told VTDigger. “What I’ll say is, I support the original language.”
